Football: Forest leave it late to find way

Crewe Alexandra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

Nottingham Forest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

BRIAN CLOUGH today celebrates the 27th anniversary of his introduction to football management secure in the knowledge that whatever their problems in the Premier League, Nottingham Forest continue to be a force in the competition they have dominated in its various incarnations.

Forest, who have reached the final three times in the past four years, progressed to the last 16 at Gresty Road last night, although Crewe more than matched them at their own close-passing game in an exciting first half. The second period, climaxed in the 84th minute by a spectacular goal from 20 yards from the Icelandic international, Thorvaldur Orlygsson, was a vastly different story.

Defeat was particularly tough on two of the Third Division side's players. The striking instincts of Graig Hignett, reportedly the subject of a pounds 650,000 offer by West Ham, took him in to a scoring position no fewer than five times in the opening 42 minutes, but he was denied by a mixture of bad luck and careless finishing. Dean Greygoose, the goalkeeper, also made a string of agile saves.

Hignett, hardly a giant at 5ft 10in, often embarrassed Forest in the air. The former Liverpool apprentice thought he had scored with a header in only the second minute when Mark Crossley dropped the wet ball behind him, but the prostrate keeper clawed it back off the line and Roy Keane completed the clearance.

In the second half, however, Forest laid siege to Greygoose's goal. The quaintly named custodian was beaten twice by Lee Glover, first with a header, which was disallowed for pushing, and then with a drive that came back off a post. Clearly, it was going to take something special to beat him, and Orlygsson belatedly produced it. 'They wore us out with their passing,' the Crewe manager, Dario Gradi, said magnanimously.

Crewe Alexandra: Greygoose; McKearney, Smith (Clarkson, 88), Wilson, Carr, MacAuley, Hignett, Naylor, Edwards, Lennon (Gardiner, 62), Walters.

Nottingham Forest: Crossley; Charles (Chettle, 64), Pearce, Keane, Tiler, Orlygsson, Crosby, Gemmill, Clough, Glover, Black. Substitute not used: Stone.

Referee: J Lloyd (Wrexham).